A few of my favourite things (brightening a dull February)

I know it’s known as the short month, but sometimes February simply feels too long. I often find it more gloomy than the dark days of November. Perhaps it’s the closeness of the much anticipated spring compared to the everyday reality of more grey, depressing drizzle. So I thought I’d consider some uplifting, diversions and a culinary treat!

Blue flowers – no fresh ones in the garden yet, but these saved and dried from last year.

Love the images. I was having a giggle at the thought of a gloomy February, as it is our most humid month in OZ, until just now an electrical thunderstorm has hit and sent the sky black at 4pm. I’m unplugged from the power just in case. I couldn’t cope with the laptop blowing its mind.

It was a ferocious storm. Current reports estimate 12,000 insurance claims have been lodged. The perspex roof over my sister’s pergola is now littered with holes, and her son’s car is trashed. My other sister’s outdoor umbrellas are now on her neighbour’s roof. No damage with us fortunately.

Yes, as I was adding the text I did think that it would be nice and warm/exceedingly hot and sunny in some parts of the world.
Wise move unplugging the computer gear. My 12 year old laptop hard drive has just failed. Luckily I don’t use it for work. Unluckily, as it was just home stuff, I hadn’t backed it up in years. Have lost over 3000 photos – that will teach me. Come to think of it they were mostly average and inconsequential and these days permanency is less and less an issue. So ho hum.

I have a stern word with myself occasionally to back up. And the manuscript I am currently working on gets dumped to a USB every few days. It is a pity to lose all those photographs, as I am sure your “mostly average” is another person’s “perfect”. On the other hand, managing photos in this digital age is a problem in itself. We couldn’t afford a camera and developing when I was young. These days it’s a case of quantity over quality.

Yes, I don’t think the world has ever seen a time with so many, many photographs. I can safely say that my loss isn’t anywhere near as bad as when I left an undeveloped roll at a safari lodge in Kenya or, even worse, when my parents’ ‘farewell to living in the Middle East’ collection of rolls was lost/ruined by the photographic developers!

Oh no! Disaster! I feel the same about my wedding photographs in terms of ruin. The photographer kept asking me where I wanted to stand, look, etc, etc. Finally I said, “you’re the one looking down the lens, you tell me.” Then when the proofs came back, the colour saturation (or lack of) was terrible. I was wearing a pale pink dress with a pastel underskirt and I think they kept trying to make it white and match the surroundings to that.

Ah that’s a shame. I expect these days a print could be scanned and then photoshopped to improve the colour perhaps. We didn’t have a professional photographer. It was back in the days of film, but even so we asked our friends to each take a roll and we’d pay for development and select the best. It worked well as my now ex-husband was a designer and so his arty friends took some interesting shots. I’m afraid I don’t do traditional/formal well and so my dress wasn’t white either, yes you guessed it, it was painted silk (yellow and pink).